Strong rise in 2015 new lending from Berlin Hyp

German real estate financier Berlin Hyp had another strong year in 2015, raising its volume of new business lending by 10% over 2014. New loans amounted to a total of €5.4bn (from 2014's €5.0bn), of which €1.0bn (previous year also €1.0 billion) was for long-term extensions. Around 75 % of the financing was for property deals within Germany, with the rest abroad.

The bank, which is owned by the Sparkassen, or savings banks network, specialises in large-volume property finance for professional investors and housing associations, and creates products for its members, the savings banks. It said that in addition to its classical syndicated business with the savings banks, Berlin Hyp placed seven ImmoSchuldscheine, a special form of participation developed by the property lender particularly for the savings banks. These represent a combination of a classic promissory note with a backing from mortgages on property, and are designed to give the Sparkassen a low risk diversification option for the risks in their own portfolios.

The bank has also been gaining attention for its Green Pfandbriefe, a fast-growing segment of the covered bonds market designed to mobilise bond markets for climate change solutions, by reducing the cost of capital and improving security for climate-ralated investments of pesnion and insurance funds.

Soon-to-be outgoing bank chairman Jan Bettink commented on the bank's strategy after a major restructuring over the last two years, which we covered frequently in these pages. “We consider it very important to communicate with our customers on an equal footing and at the same time demonstrate presence. In the light of this, we decentralised the Group business last autumn and have also integrated the savings banks advisers in our German branches.”